According to Eurostat, results of the spring livestock census have so far been published by 11 EU Member States. Data from France and Italy, which normally also participate in the spring census, are not yet available.
The largest decline was recorded in the Netherlands, where the pig herd fell by 6.8% to 9.19 million head. In Spain, the EU’s largest pig-producing country, numbers declined by 2% to 33.10 million head.
Denmark, by contrast, recorded a 2.5% increase to 12.19 million pigs. However, at the time of the census, some slaughter-ready pigs remained on farms due to delays in their collection, which may have affected the figure.
In Germany, pig numbers increased by 0.6% to 21.04 million head, while Poland recorded a 0.9% rise to 9.12 million.
Sow Herd Remains Almost Unchanged
The 11 countries included in the census had a combined sow herd of 7.82 million head, only 0.1% higher than a year earlier.
In Spain, sow numbers increased by 2.6% to 2.68 million head, while Germany recorded a 0.9% increase to 1.41 million. In Poland, the figure remained unchanged at 614,000 head.
By contrast, sow numbers in Denmark fell by 0.9% to 1.14 million head, while the Netherlands recorded a 5.7% decline to 748,000.
Against the backdrop of difficult pork market conditions and weak prices during the summer, analysts expect the decline in pig numbers to accelerate in the autumn. The European Commission also forecasts that EU pig slaughter in the second half of 2026 will be lower than a year earlier.
PigUA.info, based on materials from schweine.net